Stripe plans stablecoin card expansion to more than 100 countries by year-end
In brief
- Stripe expects stablecoin cards in 100-plus countries by year-end, Henri Stern told CoinDesk.
- Kraken, Ramp and Morse are current customers, according to CoinDesk.
- $1.2 billion in stablecoins was spent through cards last month, triple a year earlier, Paymentscan says.
- Stripe is exploring tokenized deposits and DeFi but plans to stay stablecoin agnostic, Stern said.
What Stripe is building
Stripe wants digital dollars to sit alongside traditional currencies as one more way for consumers and businesses to pay, and it's expanding its stablecoin cards business globally to get there. Current customers include crypto exchange Kraken, fintech Ramp and payments app Morse.
Stern said the approach is to plug stablecoins into infrastructure Stripe already has. By his count, the company has issued more than 400 million cards and processed hundreds of billions of dollars in card volume since 2018. The stablecoin product pairs that issuing business with Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company Stripe bought for $1.1 billion in 2024.
For a company like Ramp, that could mean taking a corporate card into new countries on stablecoins rather than rebuilding banking and payments connections market by market.
Kraken has explored letting customers spend straight from accounts where they already hold digital assets.
A fast-growing corner of the market
CoinDesk describes stablecoin cards as a fast-growing corner of a digital dollar market worth more than $300 billion. About $1.2 billion of stablecoins were spent through cards last month, according to Paymentscan. That's triple the figure from a year earlier.
Agnostic by design
Stripe's crypto stack has grown quickly. After buying Bridge and Privy, it partnered with Paradigm to develop Tempo (a blockchain designed for payments), and it's a founding investor in Open Standard, the company developing Open USD, a stablecoin that aims to challenge Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT. Bridge co-founder Zach Abrams recently moved to run Open Standard full time.
Stern told CoinDesk those products are meant to work closely together without locking customers into Stripe's ecosystem. Many card programs currently use USDC, but he said Stripe intends to stay stablecoin agnostic and blockchain agnostic.
“A huge part of crypto's value is the fact that it's built on an open and modular stack, and we want to make sure that our users get to mix and match their stack in exactly the way they want.”
He argued that stablecoins should become another option inside products businesses already use, not a separate crypto stack they've got to learn. Tokenized deposits, DeFi and accepting more digital assets as payment are all being explored, according to Stern, but he said the bulk of Stripe's work still happens with stablecoins.
Frequently asked questions
How many countries does Stripe plan to offer stablecoin cards in?
Henri Stern told CoinDesk that Stripe expects to bring its stablecoin card programs to more than 100 countries by year-end. It's a stated plan, not a completed rollout. Current customers include Kraken, Ramp and Morse.
How does Stripe's stablecoin card product work?
Stern said Stripe plugs stablecoins into infrastructure it already has. The offering combines Stripe's card-issuing business with Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company it bought for $1.1 billion in 2024. Stern said the company has issued more than 400 million cards since 2018.
Which stablecoins do Stripe's card programs use?
Many of the programs currently use Circle's USDC. Stern said Stripe intends to remain stablecoin agnostic and blockchain agnostic, and that its crypto products shouldn't lock customers into Stripe's ecosystem.
